Superhero of the Computer Rage
by notashketchum
Summary: Gary hates Facebook. He really hates Facebook.
1. FML

**A/N – **_Wow. I haven't been here in a while. 8| Think the last time I was here I was spamming you all with a terribad Drarry adventure. WELL, NOW YOU'RE GETTING TERRIBAD PALLETSHIPPING ADVENTURES._

_I had a bit of a flip out at Facebook earlier, and it sort of translated into this here... only not how I expected it to and now I have no idea where I'm taking this. Only really uploading it for a friend. Suppose we'll see though, right? It'll keep me sated while I'm not roleplaying. Remember reviews are always nice. c;  
><em>

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><p><span>FML<span>

The concept of diligence was such a fickle and fleeting thing in Gary Oak's mind at the best of times, and at the worst, as it happened. Lounged and limp in his office chair, the young man met the ceiling with a lopsided, distracted sort of smile. He'd rather think; think about his day, think about the silly things that had him smiling, think about that mountain of work he had yet to do... or just him. Yes, think about him. Gary closed his eyes, swiveling his seat from side to side. That lopsided smirk of his grew, and his thoughts only expanded in the very little vacant capacity that remained in his mind. Gary would have to accept the fact that Ash would always be a nuisance to him – even if nowadays he was so in a more pleasant way.

It wasn't that he was _completely besotted _or anything. Heavens no! It was just that... well, his old rival had grown up fairly well. A little too well actually. Oh the absolute shock that rattled through Gary when he saw him for the first time in years. He'd gotten so tall, so broad, and the way his hazel eyes burned into empty space with some labouring hate for the rain made Gary smile way more than it should have. It was so grey and bleak that day, and it rained from dawn to dusk. Ash only had to slip through the door and into Gary's periphery to have him staring without care for the sudden clashes of thunder startling the Pokémon he was working with. Gary couldn't remember just how long he stared for, it felt like a while though. It felt like an embarrassing while. If Gary's memory served correctly, Ash's clothes were soaked through, and his black hair was set wildly, strands bound to his pale skin by the rain. He hadn't shaved. He looked annoyed.

_'He looked sexy.'_

Gary hadn't been able to think of anything other since, let alone work. It was so frustrating, so flustering. It was bad enough that Gary was actually stooping to the level of crushing on someone, let alone Ash Ketchum of all people. He just couldn't help it – he couldn't, and even though it was blatantly obvious to him that he _was_ in fact _completely besotted_, he would fervently deny it anyway. Stupid Ash getting in the way of his stupid work. Stupid Ash getting all of his stupid attention. Stupid Ash being so damned stupidly good looking. Of course, every time the pair had met up since, it was like splashing acid on an open wound. The distracting thoughts only got more frequent, it all only got worse. Harshly, Gary huffed and knitted his brow, lurching forward in his seat with his elbows on his knees.

He was smitten and there was no hiding it. No telling it either. Ash was... accounted for. Gary's scowl deepened and he glared off into space, silently seething. Always with the stupid little complications and technicalities.

Slamming his palms down onto his desk, Gary sighed heavily and pulled himself and his chair over. The scientist's laptop had been sitting idle and bleeding a dimmed plasma back-light out into the darkened office. White with the painfully blank face of a spreadsheet that hadn't even been started. Gary's green eyes flitted between the empty cells with faint disgust. Blanks, he was just drawing so many blanks, so many. Oh but then Ash peered across, catching his mind's eye with that bedroom stare of his. Gary groaned and clenched his fist. Perhaps it would have been a good idea to just get his mind off it all before settling down to some work? Good idea or not, Gary clicked open his internet browser regardless. The tab last opened blared from the screen, bright white lined with that familiar blue. Facebook – the bane of his existence yet something he'd never quite managed to pull himself away from. Not so surprisingly, a number emblazoned in a little red speech bubble floated up on the top bar. Of course people wanted his attention, _of course_ they did.

_Dare I hope for a message from Ash?_

As Gary clicked around mindlessly, he propped up his bristled chin with his palm and stared tiredly at the menial and uninteresting things people had to say. Some work related links, a 'funny' picture he'd already seen months ago, that one annoying old colleague who wanted to meet up but would never take the hint to just vamoose. And then... _then_ there was Ash. Gary's look of scorn morphed into a faintly lovestruck little smile and a hazy green gaze. Gary scrolled and read intently. Just the fact that Ash had actually thought of Gary enough to message him made him grin like an idiot, let alone anything else. Nothing important was said, sadly, though the message was reminiscent of their previous encounter at a nearby bar. They hadn't arranged to meet, merely a welcome twist of fate that had the two sitting painfully close together on a comfy corner unit talking about stuff that you'd expect giggly, drunken women to. Gary remembered it all very clearly, he could remember Ash's hair looked so fluffy that night. He remembered how surprisingly big his arms were – he used to be so scrawny! He remembered zoning out as he stared into Ash's hazel eyes, losing track of what the man was saying and just drifting away. One interesting discovery, Ash had the most mesmerising eyes, so gorgeous that Gary just couldn't help but gaze in silence, fight the need to just pine aloud for the man's direct affections.

God damn his eyes, they nearly had Gary melted down to a puddle of helpless mush. Gary didn't like being helpless mush.

_"I want us to meet up again soon!"_

Gary blinked a few times, snapping back to reality as he stared blankly at one of the more prominent final lines of Ash's message. Oh he wanted to meet up, huh? With promptness and haste, Gary responded with a little more than subtle exuberance and eagerness. Then off he went again with that hazy, distracted smile; the idle swaying and swivelling in his chair. Gary wanted nothing more than to see Ash again, he missed him, he almost ached for him. It was stupid how fast Gary had taken to his old rival – it wasn't like him, it had never happened to Gary before, ever. Another sigh passed Gary's lips and he lazily reached over to his mouse. He _did_ need to see him, but one of the good things about Facebook was the picture stalking. Finally Gary saw the allure of it, and so he clicked onto Ash's profile, familiar profile picture popping up. It looked like Gary was in luck, with a new cluster of pictures from a Halloween party over the previous weekend. Looked like Ash was a zombie.

_'Well if he's not the best looking zombie on the planet...'_

Pleasant smile intact, Gary clicked on through... well, he stopped when he kept spotting a particular face in most of the pictures. It was only when he checked whose pictures these were that he realised he was on Ash's girlfriend's album. Disgust bore through his insides and he glowered at her nasty little face. Her nasty little fat face. Suddenly Gary felt consumed with a familiar hate, envy, pent up violence. Ever since he realised that Ash had a girlfriend, he'd tell himself that he'd one day punt her out of the picture with the force and ferocity of an angry Norse god. He still hadn't. Soon he would. Ash could do better than her, why would he want her when Gary was around?

Distaste painted across his face, Gary folded his arms and just stared at Ash's profile page, that little 'in a relationship with...' section on the side peeking into his peripheral vision. It wasn't like Gary to be so irrationally jealous. Guess Ash just did these crazy things to him... Gary gave a defeated sigh and closed the window, frowning into the mute grey of his desk. He remembered now why he tried to stay away from Facebook – this would always happen. He'd always leave feeling full of wrath and rage and the need to break something. Whatever happened to being cool and collected? Reasonable and rational? Not around Ash. Not with his stupid girlfriend in view. It was just something that Gary couldn't quite swallow, and not for lack of trying.

A tiny fragment of his anger was spent on slamming his laptop shut, and he swept up his phone and got up to leave his office. After stamping on his shoes, he stepped out into the now pouring rain and slipped his clenched fists into his pockets. Just mull it over, let it stew and simmer for a while until it stopped bubbling and burning so frantically. The rain would surely cool him off. Although, as he walked with purpose and intent through the downpour, he felt his anger melt down into nothing more than an empty, sinking feeling he'd always done well to avoid about people. Frown forming, Gary dipped his head slightly and breathed harshly. The coldness of the rain combined with the stuffy, foisty summer air was beginning to get to him. Almost as much as his loneliness, and in that moment there was nothing he wanted more than to just tell Ash he missed him and hear him say it back. He wondered for a moment, what were the chances of Ash leaving the house just to come and hold him there in the cold rain? Minimal, if not completely non-existent, though Gary would never deny the stupidly wishful part of his mind. He longed for Ash so much that it was idiotic. Gary Oak never longed for people.

Ash just did so many things to him, he made him flustered, made him stumble over his words, made him actually worry about how his usually messy brown hair looked. Ash made Gary feel so elated that he felt like he could fly, so hypnotised by his eyes that Gary would forget what the sun looked like, so completely taken by him that it was the most difficult thing in the world not to just take Ash in his arms and kiss him, caress him. But at the same time, no person had ever made him feel so empty and lost. Every time, Gary would remember that Ash wasn't his, Ash couldn't be his, and every time, it broke him a little. Gary always thought himself to be invincible, unstoppable. Gary couldn't be stopped by a bullet, but Ash... Ash was some kind of force of nature to Gary, and it scared him to death. He didn't want to feel like this about Ash – anybody but Ash. He didn't want to be the one Ash came home to at night and crawled into bed with, he didn't want to be the one Ash would creep up on and whisper that he loved.

Oh but he did, so badly that it hurt.

And as Gary came to a halt in his strolling, he looked up past a dimmed street lamp – a drop of cold rain falling from the tip of his nose. He'd ended up outside Ash's house... why? He didn't mean to go anywhere near there, but there he was anyway. Growling, Gary kicked the curb. He knew that Ash was in there, and he knew that she was too. Inside, it felt like a part of him completely fractured. It was agonising to be without Ash. It was agonising to know that he belonged to her and not him.

No, Gary wasn't completely besotted with Ash at all... he had just fallen so _stupidly_ and _deeply_ in love with him that Gary had lost meaning of most other things. Ash consumed him and infested his thoughts, Gary would dream of him night after night after night and each morning only became more and more bittersweet. It was painful, so very painful. It twisted, mangled and chewed up his insides like a very violent infection, only rather than just dying the pain would just continue without end. The pain would just get worse. Staring into the washed out brickwork of Ash's house didn't help things. From the beginning, a few months beforehand, Gary had told himself that he should just ignore it and walk away.

He didn't, and now he was paying the price.

_'Why can't you just be mine?'_

"Hey."

Defensively, Gary whirled around to that familiar voice and stared quite vigilantly behind him. Lo and behold, Ash stood there, drenched once again, probably slightly confused as to why Gary was standing in front of his house looking like a lost puppy. Ash stood there; strong, bare arms cradling a sizeable box. He looked quite collected. He was smiling. He was alone.

"Hey, Ash..."

They were both very much alone.


	2. Awkward

**A/N** – Nen reviews... nen reviews! Nen reviews because Sarky's doesn't count (lol jk, love you really, thanks bb o u o) Man, the Pokémon section must be harder to please than the Harry Potter one. Buggery. Oh well, got one alert so I suppose that's all gravy! (thanks, Kitsune Demon Girl)

I still don't quite know where I'm going with this, all I know is that I want to write some Palletshipping because I have no roleplays going on. Well, I have a vague idea of what I'd like to happen, just no clue how to execute it. So, this should be interesting! Though I'd like to thank Anpan Roller for writing 'Never Too Much Pocky' (which by the way is an adorable little fluffball that you should all read) got my little cogs turning a bit and gave me a few small nuggets that look a little bit like actual ideas.

Can only go horribly wrong, right?

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><p><span>Awkward<span>

Suddenly the rain wasn't as cooling or refreshing as Gary had initially concluded.

Heated and flushed, his soaked shirt clung irritatingly to his skin, bleeding sweat and all manner of other liquidated profanities in frustration. Ash had to just turn up when Gary was at his most vulnerable, he just _had_ to. That was just his rotten luck, right? Pursing his lips together visibly, Gary cocked an eyebrow beneath his damp and clumped brown hair and stared off through the downpour at Ash like it was odd for him to be passing by such a place at such a time. Why was it that Gary suddenly felt so under scrutiny? It was almost like Ash was mentally accusing him even though the other man stood there with a look of faintly pleasant surprise on his face. In his strong-looking arms, he held a sizeable box with a familiar beer brand painted across the surface, rain beaded and glistening. Beer, of course, Ash had succumbed to living on the stuff from what Gary could gather. Three guesses what was gonna happen for Ashy-boy later. Two of the guesses don't count.

Gary narrowed his eyes slightly.

"What are you doing out here?" Ash asked, almost tentatively stepping closer to the pavement from the road.

Gary paused. "Walking," he started with a curt nod. "Just walking."

"In the rain?" Ash began to look progressively more and more bemused. Inside his pockets, Gary's fists clenched a little tighter. His insides were burning.

"I like the rain."

"You hate the rain."

_'Fuck this kid'_

Gary folded his arms, trying his hardest not to look too affronted. "How would you know?" It was so very hard for him. What was this lunacy anyway? Since when did Gary Oak lose his cool over trivial things?

"You told me that one time we camped together near the Lake of Rage."

Since he bumped into Ash Ketchum again, of course.

_'Seriously, fuck this kid'_

"It's a love-hate relationship," Gary managed, heaving without giving away too much of his subtly bubbling annoyance. Dismissively, the young man shook his head a little and began to pace in vaguely the same direction that he did before. If he was cunning enough with his steps, he could have made it look like he was planning to just walk right past Ketchum's house and _not_ like he was intending to stand in front of it for an inordinate period of time like a retarded cat. Everything about Gary looked questionable enough already, let alone the fact that Ash had found him loitering randomly right outside his very own house. It _was_ raining and Gary _did_ in fact hate the rain; he was dressed loosely in a grey button-down the first pair of jeans he'd scooped up from the clean laundry that morning. Hardly appropriate for so-called idle strolling out in the rain, right? Then again, neither was Ash; ripped up jeans and a black sleeveless shirt. Hardly appropriate either.

With intent, Gary walked on, almost as if their little exchange didn't happen at all and the entire thing was just a haze of manifested imagination and foiled fantasy.

"Hey, where you goin'?" By that time, Ash was a foot or two from his door and staring off through the rainy summer blear. Thinking was not one of Gary's priorities. He just burbled.

"Don't know. Anywhere."

Ash laughed. "In the rain? I doubt that," he started, the jangle of his house keys just audible over a low rumble of skybound thunder. "You can sit in my place until the rain stops if you want," he offered, such a pleasant tone to his voice. Gary didn't even have to look to see that gorgeous smile on his face.

Gary knew he shouldn't just give in and waltz over, he'd already made such an ass of himself when his mind was taking a little nap beforehand. There was no telling what stupid things would happen under the reign of Gary's stupid, compromised state of mind. Originally, he was intent on wandering and blubbering to himself in the stuffy summer rain until the anger and sadness had stopped fluctuating and he felt more like himself again, but apparently that wasn't going to happen. Hesitantly, Gary turned on his heel and looked over his shoulder some into those distant yet prominent hazel eyes. He wanted so badly just so politely decline and walk away, but he couldn't. Ash was casting such a spell on him and he didn't even know it. He didn't know the first thing about any of it. It was hopeless.

"Guess I could," he quietly submitted. Vague awkwardness on his face, Gary wandered over with his shoulders tensed. Maybe Ash was still an oblivious ball of idiocy that he wouldn't even begin to tack on to the more obvious patches of Gary's not-so-subtle love for him. Then again, maybe he wasn't. Age brought many new things to Ash, that much Gary was sure to recognise. He forced a smile as he passed his slightly shorter interest and stepped across the threshold into Ash's home. Immediately Gary was struck with alien sights and smells – this wasn't anything like Delia's old house. There was no ornate woodwork panelling the walls, the windows weren't draped with white curtains, the ever-lingering scent of her cooking was long gone from this place and memories didn't ooze from the walls like bleeding wounds any more. It was hard for Gary not to frown. He almost felt unsafe. However, a remaining fragment of his better judgement and logic remained and he managed to push it all to the back of his mind as he slipped off his shoes and cautiously paced across into the living room. The place was dead and dimmed – from what Gary could tell, the house was deserted save for those two.

As he sat down, Gary couldn't help but wonder where Ash's she-demon of a girlfriend was.

"Nice place you've got." Gary sighed lightly, running one of his hands through his wet hair. A very vapid comment that perhaps he couldn't really mean knowing that _she_ lived here. True to form, Ash did have a nice home, but while that other parasitic whelp dwelled there it couldn't pass as anything liveable to Gary. Behind his hand, he scowled.

"Thanks! Mom helped me out with the re-decorating," Ash replied, still cheerful as he set down the crate of beer. "Though it was a bit of a nightmare... what she thinks looks good and what I do are two completely different things," he laughed, a tinge of awkwardness. The entire conversation already felt about as natural as a dolphin in a suit selling vacuum cleaners._ Wonderful._

"How is your mom anyway?" Gary asked idly, feigning faint interest.

"I told you the other night! You know when we went to Digital and you got totally wasted," Ash called from his kitchen, audibly ripping open the cardboard box with considerable force and gusto. "She retired and booked it," more sounds – sharp noises of escaping air and clattering bottle caps. "Bought a villa on Ascorbia Island and went to cruise the world. This house is mine now," he explained briefly albeit somewhat smugly as he walked back from the kitchen and landed heavily on the couch beside Gary. "Honestly, you weren't _that_ drunk, were you?"

_'Obviously I was'_

"Eh, my memory's been a bit funny lately," Gary shrugged, taking one of the open beer bottles held out to him. "_Your_ memory was never that good though," he remarked, faint smirk forming on his face as he took a swig of his beer.

"True that," Ash concurred, "you'd think I wouldn't be able to remember a thing."

"Oh you think? You could drink a brewery out of every drop if they'd let you," Gary commented, shaking his head slightly. One of the small things that always confused Gary was the sheer, gargantuan volume of beer and whiskey that Ash seemed to go through nowadays. He never used to drink that much from what Gary could remember. Often he'd wonder if there was even a particular reason, though often he'd just shrug it off and completely forget about it. "When you end up in hospital getting your stomach pumped, I'll be the one there telling you I told you so."

"And I wouldn't rather anyone else being an asshole in my time of need," Ash cooed in sarcastic adoration. A brief spark flared off in Gary's gut. Even the stupid little things set him off. _'Only I wouldn't be an asshole to you...'_ Predictably, Gary fell into a state of quiet thought, staring down into the bottom of the green-tinted bottle while Ash seemed to check his phone. As Gary guzzled, he felt that remaining fleck of rationality and logic leave him slowly. Why _did_ Ash drink so much? It was a worry, when Gary honestly put it into perspective, because one of these days, he _would_ land himself in hospital for it. Gary's brow knitted some at the thought. He wouldn't like that, and he wouldn't be there when he woke up to tell him he'd told him so. On the contrary, he'd be beside himself with grief, hoping that he hadn't died through the night, looming over the man's bed too close for comfort trying not to weep like a rejected school girl. Subtly, Gary shook his head. It wasn't like Ash was an alcoholic or anything... he was happy, right?

A short, odd sounding chuckle cut through Gary's thoughts and he looked over to one side to find Ash looking down at his phone with the lip of the glass bottle pressed gently against his lower lip. More knots formed in Gary's stomach as he watched. _'God he's so cute.'_ Immediately, Gary felt an overwhelming urge to just lean over and pull Ash close to his chest. He wouldn't. He couldn't. _'Not drunk enough.' _He mused as he took another long swig from his bottle. _'Never drunk enough.'_

"What?" Gary asked, unsure as to whether or not he'd be all too interested in an actual answer.

"Just something on Facebook," he responded with some level of distance in his voice. Gary narrowed his eyes a bit and impulsively leaned over to have a look. Surprisingly, Ash met this with turning his phone screen so that Gary could see it. Immediately, Gary's nose wrinkled and he glared daggers into the screen.

"_Caught out in the rain! last time I ignore the wether man :((_"

"Oh."

It was her.

There were so many irrational reasons for Gary to just completely lose his head and flip the phone out of Ash's hand right there and then, but somehow the man managed to maintain his collected composure, even if he did sound a bit sharp. Maybe it was just the ridiculous way in which the woman typed; the bad punctuation, the spelling error, the asinine little frowning face. A wave of pity and amusement at the woman's expense washed over him and a dry smile crossed his lips. He felt sorry for Ash. The girl was pudgy, looked like a man AND she was retarded to boot.

"Does she even watch the news in the morning?" Gary asked quite blandly, folding his arms with that amused smirk still on his face. Thankfully, Ash didn't notice.

"I don't think so," he said with a shrug.

"That would explain a lot..." A snide comment met with a rather quizzical look. Ash blinked at him for a moment, face for the most part blank, yet his eyes were full of questions and perhaps a mild twist of annoyance. Gary's smirk did not falter. "Mind getting me another beer, Ashy?" His senses escaped him, and he watched Ash plainly nod and rise from his seat. For a brief moment, the two glanced at each other. Gary winked, that signature smirk only spreading.

He took pleasure in knowing he was far better than that pug-faced little witch.

_'Or am I?'_

Ever with that niggling little demon of doubt in the back of his mind, Gary resigned himself to quietly cogitating his situation again. He liked Ash – no, he _loved_ Ash and yet by the looks of things, he loved somebody else. If Gary was truly better than this girl then he would have Ash by now. Gary pouted and fidgeted with a stray thread at the end of his shirt sleeve. He could convince himself that he was superior in every possible way just to make himself feel better and convince himself of this all he wanted, but at the end of the day, look who had Ash all to themselves. When Ash returned, Gary wordlessly took the opened glass bottle offered to him and took a big mouthful of beer from it.

"So," Gary started, his tone having returned to its more bleak pitch. "You said you wanted us to meet up again... does this count?" He pondered aloud, a smile threatening to pull at one of the corners of his mouth. Gary could have felt like the saddest sap in the world, but looking at Ash somehow comforted him. In the gap between their talking, Gary indulged himself in just imagining for a moment that Ash was his. For that moment he teased himself... he hurt himself, and then he remembered why the smiles would only ever threaten. He couldn't smile knowing Ash was in fact _not_ his.

"Trying to get out of hanging out with me?" Ash looked over, evidently joking, although part of what he said seemed to stab at Gary and he looked unnaturally alarmed. For some reason he'd completely evaded the fact that Ash wasn't serious.

"Wh-wha-? No! Of course not, just-"

"Hey, calm down, I'm only kidding, Gary." Ash grinned fiendishly and took a swig from his bottle, eyeing Gary and being cheeky enough to wink right back at him. Inside, Gary turned to liquid.

"G... good..."

"You okay?"

Gary took a hefty draw from his bottle, taking out almost half of the contents.

"Just fine."

"So you'll not tease or say no when I ask if you wanna go out on Wednesday?" Ash smiled, turning and swinging one of his arms over the back of the couch. He stared across at Gary with those killer hazel eyes and for a split second, Gary was honestly scared into the notion of becoming too stunned to speak. His mouth moved subtly, but for some reason the noise wouldn't come out.

He cleared his throat and gathered his thoughts. If only Ash was _actually_ asking him out and not just asking them to get together as friends.

"'Course I won't say no," he managed with surprising ease. "Well, providing your, er, girl doesn't have a problem with it." Saying such things made Gary feel like he was going to retch and throw up. His stomach twisted and churned and he thought that perhaps he'd have to take a brush and industrial strength bleach to his tongue just to get the bad taste out of there.

Ash tilted his head slightly.

"Why would she have a problem with it?"

"I don't know," Gary shrugged, eyeing his beer nonchalantly and bringing the bottle to his lips again. "You hang out with me an awful lot, some girls hate that."

"True, but... eh, she'll deal with it," and again, Ash offered up that smouldering smile of his. _'She'll deal with it.'_ Gary repeated in his head. Faintly, he smiled. Dare he entertain himself with the notion that Ash preferred him to his own girlfriend? He dare not. Instead, he merely nodded.

"Guess she'll have to."

As Gary downed the rest of his beer in a few mouthfuls, he glanced out into the murky dark of the post-storm night. The rain had stopped, but it looked as though the dry spell may not last. Met with a predicament, Gary lightly scratched his chin and thought – he could either leave and be away from this awkward little set-up, or he could stay and mess up any possibility of a good night Ash's girlfriend would have. The latter sounded all too nice, but in the end, Gary decided that he should probably get away. Lesser cooperative parts of his mind were beginning to rear up again and Gary could only see himself slipping further and further into his little well of man-made despair. Ash didn't need that, Gary needed to see Ash happy at the end of the day... More tiny parts of him started to fracture. For a few long, painful moments, Gary continued to quietly crack when finally, in silent defeat, he put his bottle down and got to his feet.

"Well, thanks for the beers and stuff... I should probably get away before the rain starts up again," he sighed, doing surprisingly well at hiding his labouring grief.

"Aw, you're leaving so soon?" Ash frowned, looking up at his friend from his seat. Gary looked over his shoulder and just about broke at the sight. Ash looked genuinely disheartened, hazel eyes slightly bulging behind his messy raven locks, and he was pouting slightly too.

"I'm sorry, Ash, but if it starts raining again and I have to go home in it..."

"Suppose you have a point..." Ash sighed. He too got to his feet, peaking at perhaps an inch or two shy of Gary's height. "Guess I'll see you on Wednesday though, yeah?" Thankfully, Ash started to sound slightly more hopeful at the prospect. Carefully, he stepped around his couch and through to the entry hallway and followed Gary to the front door.

"No guessing about it," Gary replied as he stomped on his shoes, offering his dear Ash a genuine yet visibly empty sort of smile. "I'll see you then for sure."

"Good," Ash grinned. "Well, take care out there, hopefully it won't start storming again while you're walking."

"Hope not..." Gary trailed off. For a few moments, he was merely caught up in taking in each and every one of Ash's features – his hypnotic eyes, his wild black hair, his infectious smile, that point of his nose that Gary just wanted to poke. But then there was his neck, leading down to the prominent collarbones peeking out the top of his sleeveless shirt. Gary almost let himself just drift into him, if he could, he'd just move close and kiss him gently, scatter them down his neck and tug subtly at that shirt until Ash had submitted to taking it off. It was tempting, but when Gary noticed that familiarly bemused smile on Ash's face, he was forced to snap out of it. If he wasn't careful enough, Ash was going to suspect something. Or maybe he already did, nobody was _that_ clueless when faced with such lovestruck stares. Face flushed, Gary fumbled for the door and pushed it open, stepping out into the humid and stuffy summer night.

"Well, I'll uh, catch you later!" Fake bright eyes, fake bright smile, he gave Ash a small wave and made a brisk charge out of the door. Awkward, too awkward. Just how close to kissing him did Gary get? Did he actually begin to lean in? Oh perish the thought...

After seeing Ash wave back and shut the door, Gary flew into a flurry of curse words and strung up seethings. With little care for who saw, he stomped the concrete and told himself outright just how much of a jackass he was. White hot with anger and frustration, Gary wondered if he should have had those beers at all. Clearly he could envision himself crumbling and there was nothing he could do about it. Part of him wanted it to just start throwing it down with rain, maybe that way his anger and despair would become invisible to the world.

Alas, his wishes weren't granted.

Instead, Gary headed home – face red with thunder and fire and his phone tight in his hand.

_**Gary Oak**_  
>"<em>Fuck."<br>Like – Comment – Just now_

Facebook, always the first thing to turn to in a personal emotional crisis, right? Right. No later did Gary feel his phone vibrate. An alert already? With a passive aggressive stare, he looked down his notifications list.

"_**Brock TheRock**__ likes your status_"

Gary scoffed and shoved his phone back into his pocket at the bittersweet sentiment. Either Brock was wondering why Gary was having a small bitch fit or he was just revelling in his demise. Either way... Gary would not be pleased with it. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and continued his march home.

"Asshole."

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><p><strong>AN** - After things like this, I remember why it's best for me to stick to roleplay writing.

I'm actually _good_ at that. x Oh well. Not to mention I don't usually even write Gary - Ash is my main muse and even _he's_ all out of whack. OH somebody put me out of my misery. o - o

Still haven't figured out who Ash's girlfriend should be either. Any suggestions? Oh, and you should probably review or some shit now. Go on, you know you wanna. c;


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